Best Human Resource (HR) Courses Online & Certification (April 2024)

At the heart of any organization is a group of employees working together towards a common goal. It is the job of a Human Resource Manager, or HR, to find, coordinate, and motivate these individuals. HR professionals possess not only strong people management skills, but also strategic management abilities, which can aid organizations in achieving their objectives more efficiently. 

As per U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics the job growth rate for HR managers is projected to be 7% from 2021 to 2031, the potential for finding a rewarding career in this field is high.

To help individuals kick-start their journey in HR, we have compiled a list of the best human resource management courses available. These courses cover various aspects of HR management, such as recruitment, retention, performance management, and employee relations. Whether you are just starting out in HR or looking to enhance your skills, these best human resource management courses can help you achieve your career goals.

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Best Human Resource (HR) Courses, Certification, Tutorials, Training, Classes Online

• Best Overall Human Resource Management: HR for People Managers Specialization by University of Minnesota [Coursera]
  
  
• Best for Analytics Human Resources Analytics [Coursera]
  
  
• Best for Manager Advanced Programme in Human Resource Management by IIM Lucknow [Emeritus]
  
  
• Best Budget-Option Human Resources (HR) Certification Courses [Udemy]
  
  
• Best for Short Courses Human Resources Training [LinkedIn Learning]
  
  
• Best for Working Professional People Management by Indian Institute of Management Bangalore [edX]
  
  
• Best Senior HR leaders Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) Exec Ed Program [Wharton University of Pennsylvania]

Human Resource Management: HR for People Managers Specialization by University of Minnesota [Coursera]

Managing the ‘people aspect’ is as important as if not more than managing any other management area. This Coursera HR specialization consists of abundant strategies and skills for taking control of the employee force and motivating them to perform better. This specialization is made up of 5 courses that teach you to be fluent at your Hr duties of hiring, managing, and rewarding employees

Course Instructor

The IBM Data Analyst Offered to you by the University of Minnesota, the instructors for this HR specialization course include names of highly qualified Professors, Assistant Professors, and Senior Lecturers such as John W.Budd, Amy Simon, Stacy Doepner-Hove, Larry Bourgerie, Alan Benson, and Mike Davis.

What You’ll Learn

The curriculum for this specialization comprises of five courses and one capstone project:

• Preparing to Manage Human Resources: The aim of this course is to equip you with the necessary knowledge and skills to effectively manage employees. By the end of the course, you will have gained a solid understanding of HRM concepts, which will enable you to develop essential skills for hiring, performance management, and employee rewards in future courses.
  
  
• Recruiting, Hiring, and Onboarding Employees: At the core of the People Manager Value Proposition lies the ability to recruit and onboard skilled individuals who can help the organization realize its strategic objectives. The present course serves as an introductory exploration into the realm of recruitment, selection, and onboarding, covering the fundamental concepts and principles relevant to these areas.
  
  
• Managing Employee Performance: Performance management is a crucial process for managers seeking to optimize the productivity of their employees. Key areas of focus will include establishing clear performance expectations, providing constructive feedback, and conducting effective performance appraisals.
  
  
• Managing Employee Compensation: By the end of this course, you will have acquired a comprehensive comprehension of compensation, encompassing both strategic and technical aspects. Additionally, learners will gain an introductory understanding of pay regulation in the United States.
  
  
• Human Resources Management Capstone: HR for People Managers In the capstone project, you will be tasked with identifying the primary human resources challenges facing a particular workplace. This will involve examining critical issues related to employee motivation, selection, performance evaluation, and rewards.

Pros & Cons

Key Highlights & Learning Objectives

• Identify and acknowledge a variety of approaches to managing the workforce and different motivator factors for different people.
  
  
• Gain the skill of identifying & hiring the right candidate for the right job, thus ensuring maximum efficiency.
  
  
• Learn to create a pay structure plan that is technically and strategically sound for both management and the employee.
  
  
• It includes a hands-on project which will help you to understand the learnt concepts and theories in a practical manner with application in real life/workplace.
  
  
• Get access to this course and its materials for a lifetime, Earn a Coursera verified specialization certificate for our resume.

Who is it for?

This human resource management certification program is tailored specially for managers, entrepreneurs, or even beginners with no prior knowledge of HRM as they can learn from the very basics to profound knowledge that goes into managing staff at an organisation. After taking this course, individuals will have equipped a deep understanding of various practices followed in the entire employee life-cycle.

Human Resources Analytics by University of California, Irvine [Coursera]

The main focus of this HRM course is to assist in identifying reliable data sources, creating relevant metrics, formulating sustainable measures, and utilizing the outcomes to advance organizational strategies and tactics. If you are interested in learning People Analytics check out our list of Best HR People Analytics Courses!

Course Instructor

The University of California, Irvine offers this course, instructed by Amber Gould, a seasoned Human Resources leader with 20 years of extensive experience across all HR disciplines. She has a track record of successful collaboration with leaders from various business sectors, and is highly regarded for her expertise in facilitating strategic HR planning that aligns with business growth goals and objectives.

What You’ll Learn

The course is organized into four weeks, each consisting of a module:

• HR Metrics Life Cycle: This course will explore the Human Resources Metric Life Cycle, encompassing an in-depth analysis of the employee life cycle, HR agility, and the diverse metrics utilized to measure and foster business outcomes.
  
  
• Staffing, Training and Compensation: This module delves extensively into three types of metrics, namely staffing, training, and rewards metrics. Get to know the areas of HR – recruitment, hiring, and retention. Additionally, learners will examine the key metrics that drive each of these three areas.
  
  
• Employee Relations and the Overall Human Resources: Organization Get to examine employee relations metrics and the overall HR organization. Learners will gain insight into various approaches for tracking and reporting on outcomes.
  
  
• Building Your Case and Creating Action: The final module of this course will center around the practical application of data collected, specifically in relation to the creation and influencing of strategic business planning.

Pros & Cons

Key Highlights & Learning Objectives

• Develop a mindset focused on strategic thinking and problem-solving.
  
  
• Gain knowledge about the different stages of the HR Lifecycle, including recruitment, onboarding, training, and retention.
  
  
• Understand the distinct functions of HR and how they contribute to the recruitment, hiring, and retention of top-tier employees.
  
  
• Test your understanding of each module by taking interactive quizzes.
  
  
• Receive a certificate of completion and lifetime access to course materials upon finishing the program.

Who is it for?

This HR analytics course caters to novice HR learners seeking knowledge on how multiple data sources can aid decision-making and propel organizational success. It provides an understanding of data-driven HR practices to drive recruitment, retention, and employee development.

Advanced Programme in Human Resource Management by IIM Lucknow [Emeritus]

As the HR field transforms from a business enabler to a growth catalyst, this course covers the latest best practices and advanced frameworks for effective workforce management, including Organizational Design, Learning and Development, HR Analytics, and HR in a global context, across various industries.

Course Instructor

Prof. Anjali Bansal and Prof. Ajay Singh are the instructors of this course. They bring a wealth of experience and expertise to the course, having worked in various industries and academia, with a focus on leadership and strategic management.

Pros & Cons

Key Highlights & Learning Objectives

• Understand the latest frameworks and advanced concepts in strategic HRM and how to apply them for business growth.
  
  
• Acquire an understanding of real-world challenges in HRM and the ability to tackle them.
  
  
• Gain insights on the multi-dimensional aspects of HR and their applications to effectively manage a complex workforce.
  
  
• Build your skillset to drive successful HR strategies aligned with organizational objectives.
  
  
• Develop a data-driven approach to improve business productivity and performance.
  
  
• After meeting attendance and academic requirements, participants will receive a certificate of completion.

Who is it for?

Designed for mid to senior-level professionals, this program focuses on building strategic HR management capabilities to advance into leadership roles and drive HR strategy.

Human Resources (HR) Certification Courses [Udemy]

Udemy HR courses provide learners with all the general and core topics of HRM by providing courses such as ‘Administrative Human Resources (HR) for Beginners,’ ‘Learn HR Fundamentals for a Career in Human Resources,’ ‘Effective Human Resources Administration’ etc. In addition, the platform also provides a Diploma course in HR online for individuals who are dead set on making a career in the HR field.

Course Instructor

A total of 320,277 students are enrolled for courses in HRM, Business section of Udemy, making it a reliable place to pursue a course. The list of instructors’ names includes Donna Galatas, Jackie Torres, Akaaro Consulting and Training, Josh Bersin, Christina A. Danforth, and many more

Pros & Cons

Key Highlights & Learning Objectives

• Learn to integrate Analytics with your organisation’s operations in order to study your firm’s position in the market.
  
  
• Identify various management styles and learn retention of employees through various methods.
  
  
• Get to know the concepts of Pluralism & Unitarism and how performance management can help you maintain a productive work environment.
  
  
• Follow a holistic approach in studying Human Resource Management and learn to use HR concepts in your workplace.
  
  
• Solve case studies to understand the concepts and challenges faced by the HR team at a more realistic level.
  
  
• Get plenty of downloadable resources, articles, and more for lifetime access along with unlimited access to courses and earn a shareable certificate after successful completion to showcase your learnt skills.

Who is it for?

The platform offers the best online HR certificate programs suitable for beginner to advanced level students, perfect for an HR employee who wants to grow in their field. Learners can easily acquire all the versatile skills required for being a proficient HR manager.

Human Resources Training [LinkedIn Learning]

The Human Resources LinkedIn learning courses are one of their kind as you get a selection of rich content driven courses that focuses on important areas of HR. Some of the Human Resources courses on the platform include ‘Human Resources Foundation,’ ‘Strategic Human Resources,’ ‘Human Resources: Compensation and Benefits,’ ‘Certification Prep: Professional in Human Resources (PHR)®,’ etc.

Course Instructor

Linkedin is a respected brand that resembles professionalism thus, even the HR online courses provided by the platform are of optimum quality with authors like Catherine Mattice Zundel, Wayne Cascio, Joanne Simon-Walters, John Boudreau, and more.

Pros & Cons

Key Highlights & Learning Objectives

• Learn strategic human resource planning by interrelating your duties to the organisation’s missions.
  
  
• Develop a compelling compensation strategy to retain your workforce and keep them happy.
  
  
• Gain the skill of conflict management to peacefully manage employee conflicts with some help by building a ‘process’ to solve the arising problems between the staff members.
  
  
• Learn to develop employees by carrying out job analysis, job description, onboarding, and performance management in the right manner.
  
  
• Mark your course completion with a LinkedIn Learning certified certificate to improve your CV/Resume, get exercise files in every course, project files for lifetime access

Who is it for?

The platform’s HR section of courses can easily be said to be dedicated to those individuals who want to start (beginners) or advance (expert) their career in HR. Another gain of taking up a course from this website is that it teaches you various skills of workforce management/planning, Human Resources metrics, Hiring, and interviewing, among other skills.

People Management by Indian Institute of Management Bangalore [edX]

People Management is much more than just maintaining a happy work environment. It also encompasses all the process that involves dealing with people, even in the littlest form that an HR has to go through, and this HR training course in people management shows you exactly how to be a professional in it with some personal development and growth.

Course Instructor

These HRM online classes are brought to you by IIMB, with the instructor for the course being a Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Human Resource Management at IIM Bangalore, Vasanthi Srinivasan. Prof. Vasanthi is also known for providing Indian and International companies with Leadership Development Programs.

Pros & Cons

Key Highlights & Learning Objectives

• Learn self-development, build a road map for yourself to follow in order to become an ideal people manager.
  
  
• Develop the skill to take, handle, and potential assessments. Motivate employees, give feedback for betterment, etc.
  
  
• Engage in why communication should be given prioritization and go through why effective communication is crucial in a firm.
  
  
• Learn how to assign work to individuals who can get the most out of it for both organisation and themselves.
  
  
• Enhance your learnings with graded assignments and exams and achieve a shareable certificate upon completion of the course and the Edx support team to assist you with your difficulties.

Who is it for?

This Human resource certification course is for budding entrepreneurs, managers, or anyone leading a group who had trouble in getting their point across. With the application of the methods mentioned in this course, they will learn communication and leadership skills that will help them to put forth and communicate their ideas in a convincing manner.

Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) Exec Ed Program [Wharton University of Pennsylvania]

This HRM program is very attractive as it offers training to individuals for becoming a Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO). The course will include all the hardships, day-to-day challenges, workings of a CHRO from an executive level. Other than that, this hr training online classes incorporate the various tasks and strategies that the officers have to deal with/ make for swift conduct of business operations.

Course Instructor

Faculty names consist of three Professors and one Associate Professor of Management at The Wharton School – Matthew Bidwell, John Paul Macduffie, Nicolaj Siggelknow, and Andrew Carton, respectively.

Pros & Cons

Key Highlights & Learning Objectives

• Learn the importance of organisational change and how to drive & manage a change.
  
  
• Study about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and learn how you can practice this concept in your organisation.
  
  
• The program also offers to select any three online electives from eight crucial electives for studying in depth, such as ‘Corporate Governance,’ ‘Executive Presence and Influence in the C-Suite,’ etc.
  
  
• Learn from solving realistic case studies, challenges faced by business, and by interacting with the peers of the program.
  
  
• Two days of ‘On Campus Networking & Graduation Event.’
  
  
• Get a certified digital certificate from The Wharton Executive Education with acceptance to an exclusive LinkedIn group for increasing your network.

Who is it for?

This HR program is strictly for working professionals or for individuals with some experience in the HR field. The courses give opportunities for professionals to get some exposure by connecting them to the faculty, industry experts, and others from different parts of the world.

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